Matopos

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General information about Matobo.

Matobo is a national park south of Bulawayo. In the western part are remains of early civilisation and there you will find Cecil Rhodes grave. It’s an extraordinary powerful landscape. The eastern part is a game park. You can drive around in your own car or ride a horse (with a guide). It is a rough country with hills and rock formations. There is a lot of game.

	The first thing that we noticed when we enter the park was the warning sign see the picture on the left. So we have to be careful when we have a flat tire. The gravel roads in the park are not well kept; especially the northern loop is in bad condition. A little “off the road” experience can’t do no harm.
We saw a lot of game: wildebeest, kudu’s, impala’s warthogs, giraffes and yes we spotted also a few rhino’s. They we resting under a tree, but we saw them. According their size they must be white rhino’s. Matopos is the best place in Africa to spot the black and the white rhino.
After the game park we drove to Cecil Rhodes grave.	On the way to his grave a warning light on the dashboard began to flash: we were running out of gas! The nearest filling station was 40 km outside the park; about 80 km still to drive… First the grave, it was on the route anyway. The scenery was beautiful but I must think of the fuel meter. From that moment I tried to drive so economical as possible: use the clutch pedal downhill and drive 50 km/h in its 5^th gear. It was a relieve when we made it to the park exit but I was really happy when we arrived at the filling station. There was only 1 litre left in the tank. The moral of the story is: when entering a game park be sure that you have enough gasoline in the tank (= it must be full). You will use a lot of petrol when you are driving “off the road”.
	The next day we walked in the two parks of Bulawayo and we visited the Natural History Museum. .

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